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Drink

Eg-g- Caudle

A hot drink made with boiled water, spices, egg, sugar, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Eg-g- Caudle

Ingredients

Directions

Steep the spices

  1. In a bowl, combine the cloves and broken cinnamon.

  2. Pour the boiling water over the spices and let steep for a few minutes.

Combine and serve

  1. In a separate bowl, beat the egg with the sugar and brandy.

  2. Strain the spiced water into the egg mixture, stirring constantly.

  3. Serve warm.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Cinnamon + brandytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,199 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Clove + brandytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,362 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Egg + brandytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,340 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

Cinnamon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Egg
Adds richness and body, giving the drink a thicker, creamy texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the spices and brandy.
Brandy
Adds warmth and aroma to the drink.
Whole cloves
Add a warm, pungent spice aroma as they steep in the water.
Broken cinnamon
Adds sweet, woody aroma and flavour as it steeps in the water.

The step that matters

Strain the spiced water into the egg mixture, stirring constantly. Pouring hot liquid onto beaten egg can cause it to curdle or scramble. Adding the liquid slowly while stirring constantly gradually warms the egg, so it blends smoothly into a uniform drink.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cinnamon, egg, sugar, brandy):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Clovethe original
  3. Allspicefits about as well
  4. Cardamomfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against cinnamon, egg, sugar, brandy. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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